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The real dividing line in the online world of business is audience and how your brand connects to each person. An audience of 1 million doesn’t necessarily mean it is more valuable than an audience of 100,000. These fallible instances of building numbers rather than building influence within your audience can cripple a CMO and their brand.
The time has come to step away from the practice of herding followers through brand pages like cattle and start impacting these people in a way they will never forget. That’s influencer amplification and it is a powerful tool in any CMOs arsenal.
Abtin Masseratagah, founder of Northrn, and influencer marketing specialist, has worked with plenty of brands who have established the personal connection within their audience. In doing so, Masseratagahhas impacted his clients’ audience, not just in numbers, but also in actionable responses, by establishing a prominent relationship within their individual communities.
Today he shares his top three strategies every CMO can use to amplify their influence within their brand.
1. Take Advantage of Social Personas
With so many tasks flooding your CMO list, one task you should not ignore to amplify your brand is the social media persona. While this may seem irrelevant to your brand, it holds the key to establishing that connection with your audience you’re going to need later.
“First, understand what your brand is offering your audience,” says Masseratagah. “If you are a Facebook advertising expert with a lean toward video, then you want to offer expertise in this area within your community. Make a list of everything you are going to offer, this will come in handy when you create your persona later.”
Once you have your list of offers ready, now it’s time to connect this to the people who are going to want what you have to offer. Masseratagahexplains this is the important aspect of amplifying your brand because this is where you can accurately pinpoint individuals.
Social media persona should include:
- Name
- Age
- What their goals are
- What their main problem in business is
- Which social platforms they love
- Social behavior
Masseratagah breaks this list down even more when he explains this is detailed exactly for your business. While “John Smith” may work for a mid-level marketing firm, he is the director of advertising for this firm. His goals are to create killer Facebook ads that direct traffic and create action.
In a sense your social media persona connects your “persona” to your brand. These are the people you will be reaching out to make a connection with and should always keep this in mind with every marketing aspect of your business.
2. Create Purpose For Your Audience
While Masseratagah claims over 30 million impressions daily for his clients, one of the instructions he brings to the table in this strategy is to make sure their audience has a purpose.
When your audience feels they have a purpose with what you’re brand is doing, they have a sense of belonging. Masseratagah says there is no substitution for bringing this personal connectivity to your brand. “This is key to extracting emotional responses within your community,” he states.
Creating a sense of purpose for your audience stems from the social media persona’s you have created. Because you have connected your persona to your business you have already made it personal and targeted. The next step in this series is to consistently hammer what is important to them. Masseratagah suggests when you do this, people feel more inclined to “help” your brand.
You can create purpose by not being stingy with your content or your message, catering to the wants and needs of your persona’s, and solving the major problems within the pool of your audience. When CMOs can bring their brand to this level, their audience feels like the brand has done them a favor by helping them and the willingness to reciprocate on that favor becomes strong, therefore giving them a purpose.
3. Build the Relationship
Once you are creating purpose within your community, the real work begins. Masseratagah’s experience within influencer marketing shows us how building the relationship is one of the most important aspects of this strategy. Here are three things your brand should always remember when building the relationship with the audience.
Listen Well
Remember in Field of Dreams when Kevin Costner kept hearing a voice that told him, “If you build it, they will come?” While he definitely heard the voice, what set him apart was how he listened. People who listen take action. People who do nothing simply “hear.” Does your brand hear your audience, or does it listen?
Every member of your community wants you to listen. When you can successfully accomplish this feat, you can adjust and adapt your brand to the wants and needs of your audience. Masseratagah explains if you listen, they will tell you the best way to market to them.
Ask the Right Questions
Asking the right questions means you are listening well. Asking the right questions means you are attempting to learn more about your audience and what they need you to do for them. This is a great way to fine tune your brand to fit their needs. And yes be prepared for the answers, be they ones you want to hear vs. what you need to hear.
Remember Important Stuff
Masseratagah says one of the biggest flaws inside influencer amplification is how the business owner forgets important aspects about the client, customer, or audience member. However, if you can remember things which are important to your community it is a powerful thing.
Everyone loves hearing their name spoken. When a brand does this they perk up and listen to you because you have triggered something emotional within them and helps them pay attention to you. This is why it’s important to keep your facts accurate about your audience members and your specific persona’s. As an elevated brand, your persona’s will always be fluctuating and evolving into the honed audience member you’re trying to target.
In Conclusion
Every CMO wants to create the opportunities to amplify their brand which sets them apart from the rest of the competition. If you heed these three powerful tips from Masseratagah, you will soon start seeing your brand taken to the forefront within your target community.
This article originally appeared on Forbes.
